I always felt that to deal with the Miao King, one Diana or Daji would suffice, but Bai Qingcheng was 201, and she understood the Miao King better than I did. Summoning so many people indicated that this Miao King was indeed a formidable opponent.
A few minutes later, we arrived at Jinling South Station.
Getting off the train, Xiao Nu and Bao Bao were already there, holding up a sign that read "Riding the Winds and Breaking the Waves" at the exit, greeting us. However, the words "breaking the waves" were hastily covered with tape.
The sign was an LED one, but it was out of power. It was meticulously made. Bingbing recognized this, saying it must have been used by fans of a show called "Riding the Winds and Breaking the Waves" to welcome someone previously. After the reception, they had discarded the sign, and the two of them had picked it up, repurposed it, and used it to welcome me, a "waste."
Fine, I suppose they had good intentions.
With the four of us reunited, I called Yao Yao. They said they had arrived in the city from the airport and asked where to meet specifically.
It was only a little past nine, and Bai Qingcheng said she would find us at noon. So, we decided to head back to my place first. I didn't know where else to go.
Yao Yao still remembered my address. I heard her giving instructions to the taxi driver on the phone.
The four of us also took a taxi.
Returning to my long-unseen home, everything was as good as new. Someone had cleaned it, probably the landlady. The last time I renewed the lease with her, I had paid her generously, and she was very happy, even offering to introduce me to her college-student daughter.
Forget her daughter. I was currently caught in a vortex, and I didn't know if it would bring fortune or disaster. I couldn't implicate ordinary people.
There were quite a few people, and my place was small. They made themselves comfortable and, as expected, started playing Dou Dizhu.
Since we might be starting our hunt at noon, I went to the bedroom and returned the demon cores to Daji and Diana, so they could exert their maximum combat strength.
At 11 o'clock, there was still no movement from Bai Qingcheng's side. I took them downstairs to eat. Having grown tired of delicacies, I went to the rice-bowl restaurant I used to frequent and ordered tomato rice bowls, allowing them to taste my simple and unadorned daily meals from the past.
To be honest, my palate had become more discerning, and it didn't taste the same anymore.
At 11:35, Bai Qingcheng's call finally came, asking us to assemble and await orders at Cuiping Mountain.
"What's the specific location?" I asked. We were familiar with Cuiping Mountain; we had clashed with the Chi You organization there last time.
"Jia Lejia... Wait, hold on, stay where you are for now. The situation has changed. I'll contact you again." Bai Qingcheng hung up the phone.
We waited in the restaurant for half an hour, but there was still no news from Bai Qingcheng. So, we had to return home and continue waiting.
We waited until 2 PM before Bai Qingcheng called again: "The ambush location has been changed. Go to Yang Province."
"What's the specific location?" I asked again.
"I'm not sure. They say it's at Emperor Yang of Sui's palace," Bai Qingcheng said. "You guys check it out."
What the heck? Why were we suddenly talking about Emperor Yang of Sui's palace?
Was it related to archaeology?
But an ancient palace site should be easy to find. I asked Bingbing to search on her phone, but after a long time, she found nothing.
"What does the internet say?" I asked. Logically, Yang Guang was such a famous emperor, and historical records were very rich. This shouldn't be the case.
"We only found that Emperor Yang of Sui built a Jiangdu Palace in Yang Province at that time, but it was later burned down due to war. To this day, the location of Jiangdu Palace remains a mystery for ages," Bingbing said.
I checked, and it was indeed true. Although there were some speculations online, there was no solid evidence. I had to call Lin Xi to ask if she could find this information through Sha Biya's internal channels.
Lin Xi said they were also speeding up their search. Fifteen minutes ago, the task of searching for the Jiangdu Palace site obtained from Bai Qingcheng had been processed through their supercomputer system, but they still found nothing, not a clue.
I had to call Bai Qingcheng and tell her that we hadn't found it yet. I also asked her why we were looking for this place.
Bai Qingcheng didn't hide anything from me. She said they had received confirmed intelligence that the Miao King would perform a soul-summoning ritual at the site of Jiangdu Palace, the place where Emperor Yang of Sui was strangled, at 10 PM tonight.
"Soul-summoning? Whose soul?" I asked.
"Yuwen Chengdu."
"...Then why at the location where Emperor Yang of Sui was killed?" I asked, confused. Yuwen Chengdu was a subordinate of Emperor Yang of Sui, a mighty general of the Great Sui dynasty, not from historical fiction but from actual history.
"I'm not sure either," Bai Qingcheng said. "We absolutely cannot let him succeed, otherwise, all of us combined wouldn't be a match for Yuwen Chengdu!"